By Simon Gao on September 16, 2021
Telehealth adoption is expected to grow from $3B pre-COVID19 to $250B annually (McKinsey Consulting Study, 2021). Virtual care can improve access, customer engagement, and cost and quality outcomes, ultimately increasing return on investment (ROI) on care management programs if you know which customers to target and how to activate them.
Healthcare providers and payers can implement Telehealth initiatives to improve the affordability of providing care by redirecting customers, activating previously untreated customers, and improving overall customer adoption of telehealth care. Three areas of interest offering near-term cost saving opportunities are:
Behavioral Health: Approximately 55 percent go without treatment due to provider shortages and 20 percent of customers have behavioral health challenges. 55% Customers with untreated behavioral health challenges have far higher costs than those receiving treatment, as much as $3,500 more per customer per year (NAMI 2020).
Diabetes: Annual medical costs for customers with diabetes and depression have increased from $9,500 in 2012 to $16,300 in 2020. Virtual behavioral care for diabetics has delivered $1,900 in gross medical savings per participant per year (https://www.diabetes.org/resources/statistics/cost-diabetes 2020 ).
ER Reduction: $38 billion of annual spend on low acuity ER visits can be redirected.
Predictive AI: AI can be used to take an evidence-based approach to program optimization. Using advanced analytics techniques to prove the causal impact of customer behavior campaigns. Identify the most valuable customer segments and outreach channels through predictive models. Leverage social determinants of health (SDOH), social vulnerability index (SVI), customer claims data to predict which customers are most impactable and likely to benefit from telehealth.
